{"id":386597,"date":"2023-03-06T06:02:41","date_gmt":"2023-03-05T20:02:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=386597"},"modified":"2023-03-06T06:02:41","modified_gmt":"2023-03-05T20:02:41","slug":"nmibf-to-revive-mens-island-wide-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/nmibf-to-revive-mens-island-wide-league\/","title":{"rendered":"NMIBF to revive men\u2019s island-wide league"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>
CNMI national men\u2019s team member Eli Aughenbaugh goes up for a layup in this file photo from a recent basketball league. (NMIBF)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After more than a decade, the Northern Mariana Islands Basketball Federation will be reviving what used to be the Budweiser Cup Men\u2019s Island-Wide Basketball League.<\/p>\n

NMIBF president James Lee said like previous renditions of the Bud Cup, the league will crown the best men\u2019s open team in the CNMI.
\nHowever, there will be a name change as Budweiser has given way to Michelob Ultra as the main sponsor of the competition.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many reasons for bringing back the men\u2019s island-wide basketball league. But the main reason is this was always been the signature basketball league everyone would look forward to before and so what better time to revive it with a new facility at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium,\u201d said Lee.<\/p>\n

The Ada Gym in recent months had undergone extensive renovation with help from the Northern Marianas Sports Association. It now boasts of new bleachers, flooring, basketball goals, and for the first time since it was built, the facility is now fully air-conditioned.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Initial plans call for the \u201cUltra Cup\u201d to kick off in mid-April with 14 teams duking it out not only for a year\u2019s worth of bragging rights but a handsome championship cash prize as well.<\/p>\n

Lee said teams can enlist a maximum of 14 players and the 14 teams will be grouped into two pools of seven and will battle it out in a single-round elimination format.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Top 4 teams in each pool will then advance to the playoffs where it will be single elimination and the winner takes all the prize money.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lee, who is Beverage and Tobacco manager at MARPAC,\u00a0 said while he won\u2019t exactly divulge the championship purse yet, he did promise that \u201cparticipating teams and fans won\u2019t be disappointed.\u201d<\/p>\n

While he\u2019d rather keep some of the \u201cUltra Cup\u201d details closer to his vest, Lee did divulge that NMBF will be naming the league\u2019s MVP the Uncle Paul Shimizu MVP Award.<\/p>\n

Shimizu was not only one of MARPAC\u2019s owners, but also was a former Guam national basketball player, gold medalist, and national coach.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shimizu, who passed away in March 2021, was the youngest of four siblings born to Ambrosio Shimizu, the founder of Ambros, Inc., which owns MARPAC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After more than a decade, the Northern Mariana Islands Basketball Federation will be reviving what…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":386588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-386597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}